MESTRE – Cannabis already at 12-14 years old. That is, middle school kids. There is an alarm over drug use among adolescents, with the SerD (Service against addictions) of Ulss 3 Serenissima increasingly taking on very young people: perhaps it is better to say little more than children. “The age of first use is getting lower and lower,” says the head doctor Alessandro Pani while on the occasion of World Anti-Drug Day, celebrated last Wednesday, a worrying national report was released according to which 4 out of 10 students have used or are using drugs.
The scenery
The data is also superimposable for the province of Venice where, on the other hand, we also witness a second phenomenon: what specialists call “polydependence”, that is, the simultaneous use of different substances mixed with alcohol. Very heavy cocktails that affect health, pushing the user to no longer do without them precisely because he falls into the vortex of addiction. In 2023, 3,800 people were followed by the five SerDs of the Venetian health company: 2,200 for drug abuse, a thousand for alcohol, 187 for gambling addiction, as well as 200 smokers and another 200 prisoners with other problems. «We get kids also because, in the meantime, the market has lowered prices – explains Dr. Pani -. For them, cannabis risks being an entry gate that opens up to the intake of other substances as they age: cocaine among children and then heroin among adults. Fortunately, not all of these adolescents become patients with substance use disorder (once called drug addiction, a term that today specialists no longer want to be used, considering it discriminatory, ed.). The important thing is to intercept the situation and intervene.” SerDs can also be accessed without a referral from the GP and without paying the ticket: one less barrier to going and asking for help, the person concerned, a parent or a family member. «It is important that parents are able to understand that there may be a drug problem – continues the SerD head doctor – Our advice is to observe their children’s behaviour, understand if they have started smoking, what companies and environments they frequent, realize if their academic performance worsens if there are mood swings, for example if they suddenly abandon a sport or free time activity without a plausible reason.”
Prevention
Intercepting as early as possible can be decisive, also to break a chain that over time can degenerate into addiction. “Now that summer has arrived, it is essential to also monitor how a young person behaves on the weekend. The risk of taking mixed substances increases on Saturdays and Sundays: and so it can happen that a young person first looks for a stimulating substance and the next day, to compensate, goes for a more sedative one. Then one thing risks leading to another”, observes Dr. Pani who adds: “In the 1990s, cocaine was considered the drug of celebrities, today it is available to everyone, even those with little money in their pockets to spend. Heroin, on the other hand, is confirmed as the most widespread drug among patients treated in SerDs”.
Obviously, not all people with substance abuse problems are treated or agree to seek treatment. “Sometimes the process is long, in the most serious cases, hospitalization in a protected community may be required. However, with the right approach and following the therapeutic path, one can recover well,” concludes the head physician.
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